Marcus Richards
Imagine, you just finished writing your first book, one which you have put all your heart and soul into, and are looking for publishing options. Statistics reveal that a fair percentage of authors have gained great success through self-publishing. The rise of self-published e-books has started a new era in the printing world. In this article, we have tried to debunk 4 common self-publishing myths that are stopping authors from choosing this avenue:
1. Self-Publishing Does Not Make Money
The one myth that often deters authors from choosing self-publishing over trade publishing is that self-published books do not fetch enough royalties. In reality, self-publishing is as much of a viable source of income as trade publishing, and in some cases even more so.
Self-publishing a book can earn you a decent living, and as time goes on and your audience grows, you can make as much as an eight-figure number annually. In the case of trade publishing, a first-time author is given an advance of around $10,000, but they do not start earning any royalty until the $10,000 sales mark is reached. Even then, the author earns only 10% of the royalties.
On the contrary, self-published authors can keep around 40-60% of the royalties, making this option as economically desirable as the other.
2. Self-Published Books Cannot Be Marketed
If you are hesitating to self-publish a book because someone told you that self-published books cannot be marketed, then please do not hesitate! Marketing is something that even a trade publishing company cannot 100% guarantee.
Yes, big publishing houses do have the advantage of connections with renowned retailers, but that connection can only do you so much good. No matter which way you publish, you will have to spend considerable effort on marketing by yourself as well.
3. Once Self-Published, Always Self-Published
In recent times, a popular myth that has been making the rounds in the publishing community is that once you have self-published a book, your chances of traditional publishing will be over. While it is true that you cannot have an existing self-published book published again by trade publishers, you can have your next work published by them.
If the book publisher can sense good money from your book, and your writing matches their expectations, you are already good to go!
4. Self-Published Books Look “Cheap”
This myth will give you the impression that all self-published books are filled with grammatical errors and have poorly designed covers. That, however, is not necessarily the case. While it is more probable for self-published books to have these flaws when compared with traditionally published ones, it is not the case every time.
Even as a self-publisher, you can hire proofreaders, editors, etc. to dispel the chances of having those flaws. You can also use a plagiarism check between two documents to be sure that your text is not copied from anywhere.
For book covers and illustrations, you do not need professional design agencies to do the job. You can find excellent design freelancers and illustration freelancers with top-notch skills to design your book covers.
Conclusion
Through this article, we do not mean to convince you that trade publishing is no good and that you should not go down that alley, we just want to put it out there that self-publishing can be just as lucrative.
As an author, you are in the best position to decide what kind of publishing will be the best option for your masterpiece. But, just in case these myths were misleading you, now you know! If self-publishing seems the best choice, go for it!
